Amazon Kindle (e-books) now available in India

[Themistocles D'Silva]

Now one can check out or buy e-books in rupees.

 

Visit the website

 

(www.amazon.com/kindlestoreindia)

[Cecil Pinto]

Dear Themistocles,

Thanks for the link.

Unfortunately the Kindle costs a bomb in India as it has to be
individually ordered and imported from USA by Amazon/Junglee.

http://www.junglee.com/Kindle-Touch-Wi-Fi-Display-international/dp/B005890FUI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345267403&sr=8-2

Works out to nearly Rs. 11,000/-

Whereas the same model costs less than half that price in USA. If
someone is coming down soon from USA and can buy and bring me two
Kindle Touch please contact me privately.

Cheers!

Cecil

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[Leonard Fernandes]

Not any more:

http://www.cromaretail.com/Kindle-e-reader-Wi-Fi-152cm-pc-15040-160.aspx 

[Cecil Pinto]

Yes Leonard. Thanks.

I stumbled upon that yesterday and have ordered one. Rs. 7000/- seems
reasonable despite it not having the charger/adapter. I have a Samsung
Galaxy Y phone charger charger works for the Kindle. I know as I
experimented.

Cheers!

Cecil

===============

[B MENEZES]

Leornard,
Do you know if Kindle apps for use with other devices (i-pad, etc) are also available at this time.
Also if i-pads are now available?


Braz Menezes
Just Matata - Sin, Saints and Settlers available as e-book on KOBO, KINDLE...
http://www.justmatata.com

> Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:51:31 +0530
> Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Amazon Kindle (e-books) now available in India
> From: cecil...@gmail.com
> To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

[Leonard Fernandes]

Yes, there are all available. There is also the Kindle reader available for the PC and the Mac besides being available for handheld devices running on the Android OS. Any book you purchase for the Kindle is automatically available via the library which can be accessed through that Kindle reader.

[B MENEZES]

Thank you Leonard. The good thing is that the accessibility issue has been cracked. Others will follow. KOBO (epub) used to be a very restrictive company, and complex to enter. With the competition from Amazon-kindle, they have now created 'Kobo-The Writing Life', that encourages self-publishing authors to relatively easily download cover and content.The turn around time is about 72 hours, making the book available at WHsmith (UK) and similar large bookstores in Australia, NZ, US, and Germany. The big question mark is marketing the book in terms of visibility on the net.

Braz Menezes
Just Matata - Sin, Saints and Settlers available as e-book on KOBO, KINDLE...
http://www.justmatata.com

---

From: leonard....@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 23:34:09 +0530

Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Amazon Kindle (e-books) now available in India

To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 24 August 2012 02:51, B MENEZES <bmen...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

The big question mark is marketing the book in terms of visibility on the net.

Braz, Since you have *Just Matata* in both print and e-book versions, how do you see each edition doing?

Which one is people buying (if it is possible to know)? What is the feedback like from either, again if it's possible to delineate? And, even conceding that earnings from most books are small to tiny, what does being on Kindle mean for an author writing about Goa/Kenya as you do?

FN

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FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 f...@goa-india.org
http://scr.bi/Goa1556Books | http://pinterest.com/fngoa/goa-1556-books/
http://bit.ly/GoaRecordings | http://pinterest.com/fngoa/books-on-goa/  

[B MENEZES]

So far, my e-readers seem to be almost all non-Goans (probably more readily switching away from print versions). Also many senior citizens are making the switch, as e-readers allow for adjusting size of font with deteriorating eyesight and better lit screens. But I see wealthy 2-generation Goans buying their parents gifts of e-readers in future.

Another big issue is the cost of postage. Mervyn Maciel (my honorary agent in the UK) just mailed a copy to France at a cost of 4.42 GBP. That's 505% of the cost of the book. Withing Canada, the mailing cost works out to about 40% of the book price.
So most sales take place withing the greater Toronto region, through social gathering, word of mouth etc. Even so it is not always easy. But so far I have received much support and positive feed back.
Price and priorities are more difficult to gauge.

My book retails here for the same price of a 1.2 kg of home-made Goa sausages, and the spiced pork out sells me 1000: 1

 The big issue is market visibility both with print and e.books. How to do it at an affordable cost is the issue?

Braz Menezes
Just Matata - Sin, Saints and Settlers available as e-book on KOBO, KINDLE...
http://www.justmatata.com

---

From: frederic...@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:18:45 +0530

Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Amazon Kindle (e-books) now available in India
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 24 August 2012 22:49, B MENEZES <bmen...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

So far, my e-readers seem to be almost all non-Goans (probably more readily switching away from print versions).

It seems to me that an ebook is probably better suited when the market is global, scattered in nature.

Print would still be a winner -- by far -- if one is focussing on  local topics for local distribution.

The other issue that concerns me here is how Amazon entering the market in a bigger way would affect local bookshop operations (we have a bias in favour of these, because they have been helping our operations and making it viable). More importantly, how book prices in India could get affected.

As you know, India (in the domestic market at least) has among the cheapest book prices in the world. Unlike software, exactly the same book that someone in the West is reading could be legally bought here for one-sixth or one-seventh the price. Take the wide range of the latest computer books, quickly reprinted in India under licensing arrangements. Added to this, you have the huge domestic book producing industry, which has been booming at least in languages like English, Hindi and some of the larger languages.

Kindle is offering Indian writers the chance to price their books lower for buyers in India. But would overseas authors/publishers also offer lower prices? Doubtful...

Kindle (or any other ebook reader) could be a great place through which to get out-of-print books back into circulation.